The big difference between many other people and me is this issue of ‘getting in the zone’. I just don’t really get it!
It seems that, to write, people need to try all sorts of psychological tricks to prepare themselves.
Many blogs offer psychological tips including ‘finding your ritual’ to make writing flow, having clear outcomes in mind, and writing at the 'right' time. In my view, this is pretty much rubbish. Rituals merely distract you from writing.
Most of ‘getting into the zone’ relates to place, space and base, but think differently What about a constraint? I read about this years ago in a book by John Simmons, how throwing a constraint in can release your creative flow, such as writing in sonnet form, or Dickens’ form.
I just keep coming back to the mentality that is just write. Last week, I wrote lots of stuff because I have to. It's what I do.
To be honest, if I waited until I was in the ‘zone’ to write anything, I’d still be hanging around awaiting inspiration, and never getting paid. It is, for me, that ‘do it now’ mentality that gets results. Not all writing is inspired. Writing marketing copy involves playing by the rules, for example, and regularly using a thesaurus to avoid over-using words to the point of cliche.
My advice:
Stop waiting for the perfect subject to write about, for ‘inspiration’. It probably won’t come. Write about what you know or what you are interested in or what you are told to write.
Forget the perfect office space: write on buses, trains, at a desk, onto a computer, into a notebook (this is going straight from my brain to my computer).
Accept that articles about the 'mundane' are fine as we all deal with mundane on a daily basis. Do the squirrels in your garden keep eating the bird food? There's your inspiration.
Ignore interruptions. The kids will share their news, the phone will ring, things will distract you – they are all temporary.
Don’t aspire to perfection – you are not Hilary Mantel – and, anyway, she is apparently (by her own confession) hell to live with when writing.
Accept that writing can be tedious. It isn’t all inspired creative flow. Much of it is crafting and hard slog. You are a wordsmith. Nothing more, nothing less.
JUST DO IT!